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PC audio with USB DAC

Hello all:

With my digital library of music expanding to almost 10,000 songs now and the fact that I work at home much of the time, I have the desire to improve my computer audio system.

I tend to use 320Kbps AAC files or mp3 files with a few FLAC files for auditioning.

I have a laptop, so starting from nil. I am a neophyte to computer audio and as such have been reading about USB DACs.

I am ready to upgrade the speakers to a set of decent powered desktop units (Audioengine 5+)and a subwoofer (Audioengine S8)and wanted to start with a USB DAC. I have a small Classe preamp and amp, but don't want to have too many things to turn on at the computer to get good music sound. Please don't consider this slumming, it's a brave new audio world :-)

I decided to acquire the Nuforce Udac2 SE.

The sound is definitely more dynamic. The lows are stronger, the mid range is clearer and the highs are higher to my untrained ears. My problem is around the convenience factor.

A USB DAC doesn't become active until the USB port and the DAC driver are initialized. This simply means that you can't hear boot alerts and such. Not that big a deal I guess for premium sound, but I wondered if anyone had any comments about that.

Also the need for drivers which in my short experience appear to have problems. While I had the Udac2 SE in my system, I found that in the middle of a song, the music would stop and I would get a loud white-noise hiss or popping sound or staticky sound...all disconcerting.

After a couple of days of screwing around and getting aberrant behavior, I returned the Udac2 SE.

I'm sorry this was a long message, but I am very interested in other's experiences and any hints.

Thanks,

BannonB
bannonb
realremo
460 posts
 
What are you using for music playback? ITunes? The best computer playback performance is attained when you can optimize the computer playing the music, and when you can dedicate the computer to only playing music. What operating system a you using, there are several guides created by various DAC manufacturers that tell you how to optimize your system for music:
http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_7_Audio_Playback_-_Setup_Guide
This is one example.
Audioengine is a great brand to start with, they also have a USB DAC you might want to try.
I think your playback problems might have more to do with the setup on your computer than the DAC you are using. TIP: If your music library is on an external hard drive, and you are using a USB DAC, try to use a firewire external drive, having both the drive and the DAC on the USB bus might overload the computer's innards and cause the problem you've described.
Computer audio takes some tweaking, but it's very rewarding when you get it working! Don't give up!
davide256's avatar
davide256
399 posts
 
sounds like you want to stay mainstream (compressed music). Consider the Sonos system with the Wyred4sound DAC upgrade.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Every USB interface and USB DAC is different. Different performance, different drivers etc..

It is important to understand the type of USB interface and the optimum playback software and computer hardware to use with it.

Here are some tips:

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
mateored
258 posts
 
You reference to needing to install drivers for the DAC suggests that you are using Windows, not a Mac. Let us know if that is not correct. You need a Windows person to tell you how to best adjust your sound settings, I think. You shouldnt' be having hissing and popping, and you should be able to redirect the alerts to the computer's speakers. Unfortunately, I don't use Windows anymore, so I can't be of much use.
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